Lojan
General information Lojan language (natively'' Lūghjami dirdh '[ luːɟɦämi dirdɦ ] ) is a language spoken in the Lojan land 9000 years ago. It is a predominantly suffixing agglutinative language which has obvious analytic tendencies. Phonology Consonants Vowels Alphabet |} Phonotactics Possible syllables are: *©©©©V©©©© for primary words *VC©©©V©©©© for secondary words *No limit for compound words Impossible clusters are: */t/, /th/, /d/, /dɦ/, /s/, /z/, /t͡s/ or /n/ + /ɾ/. (In these occasions, /ɾ/ will be substituted by /r/ When an affricate or a plosive precedes a fricative of the same place, they merge into one affricate. Assimilation Agressive: * /gk/ > /kk/, /tht/ > /tt/, /tdh/ > /ddh/, etc. * /tʈ/ > /ʈʈ/, /tʈh/ > /ʈʈh/, /tɖɦ/ > /ɖɖɦ/, /tʂ/ > /ʈʂ/ > /ʈ͡ʂ/ etc. Grammar Background Information Vowel Grade In Lojan, vowels have 3 grades: Primary, secondary and compound words Primary words only have one syllable. Secondary words have two syllables but the first is always without onset. Compound words can be formed from primary, secondary, o even other compound words. Forms Almost every word has three main forms: '''Absolute Form(AF), Dependent Form(DF) and Predicate Form(PF). *AF works as a noun or a pronoun. Also, AF can form the non-head parts of a compound word. *DF, just as its name, cannot appear independently. It can accept particles or enclitics. When a noun is suffixed by a particle/enclitic, it must change from AF to DF. Also, DF can act as the head of a compound word. *PF is simply a verb, from which the adjective form can be formed. Primary and secondary words can transform by vowel grade shift: *"full, long": "Full" for the first vowel of the secondary word, "long" for the second. Compound words don't have PF, and their forms(AF and DF) are related with the head place. The AF has the initial head place, while the DF has the final head place. Sentences, like compound words, also have AF, and DF. And the AF has the initial head place, while the DF has the final head place.[ If a sentence has a topic(omitted or no), the topic is its head, or the head will be the verb.] Nouns Cases Noun cases are expressed by particles (like in japanese). *khu, "flower". khūikj, "towards the flower". (remember that particles must be attached to DF). *dang, "sky". dāngtaṅ, "in the sky". Plurarity Lojan nouns don't decline according to number, but there are other ways to express the plurarity: Collective words Compounding a noun with a collective word: Numerals Numerals can be directly put before a noun: *guq dhrim. "a person". *sim sir. "six lions". Duplication *gak, "star". gaggak, "(some) stars" *dhrim, "person". dhrimdhrim, "some persons, people" For compound words, only duplicates the head: *khūkhir, "flower of snow". khūkhūkhir, "flowers of snow". If a word needs change its form, all the duplicated parts should change at the same time. *gāggākikj, "towards the stars". Pronouns *Some forms of some pronouns are irregular. (erābī, sos) *Plurarity is expressed in the same way of nouns. Adjectives Adjectival form Most words have adjectival form, whose meaning is related to its AF's meaning.( But there are no rules for this relation, so its necessary to remember the meaning of the adjectival form). *khu, "flower" > khosr, "beautiful" *lug, "a far place" > logsr, "far" *gas, "I" > gåssr, "egoist" *vis, "wind" > vessr, "free" Adjectival word/phrase/sentence An adjectival particle can make a word/phrase/sentence adjectival. The particle is'' zre, but it has 3 allomorphs according to the preceding phoneme. *sūf'e''' slim, "a tree of fruit". (suf, "fruit"; slim, "tree") *ākå'zre' gum, "a sound of midnight". (akā, "midnight"; gum, "sound") *ksrām'i' khrib, "soul blade". (ksram, "soul"; khrib, "blade") *ång'zre' dhrim, "a crying man". (ang, "wave“ > ång, "cry" ) *mnjegtu'zre' dhrim, "a man asleep". (mnjeg, "to sleep"; tu, "particle of perfective") *dāngtiṅ elth'e' dibsdibs, "clouds that floats in the sky". Compounding Compouding is also an important method of modification. In a compound word, the non-head parts modify the head. Adjectival prefix A special type of adjectives, that are prefixed to a noun. Most are indefinite adjectives and desmonstratives: *kus-, "which": kusikū, "which boy" *kas-, "every": kasanās, "every day" *als-, "whole, entire": alsumī, "the entire world, all the world" Verbs A verb is a word in PF. Transitivity Almost all verbs can be either transitive or no, and may have differente meanings in each case. Vis "wind", its PF is ves, which can mean "touch", or "fly". When it has an direct object, it means touch. When no, fly: *Gas ves. "I fly." *Gas rāsf ves. "I touch you." Flexible Usage Causative usage of nouns(AF) Add the short grade of the core vowel of a noun to make it causative verb.(Core vowel is the vowel of a primary word, the first vowel of a secondary word. A compound word's core vowel is the core vowel of its head.) A causitive verb of a noun means "to make sth/sb become/be...". For example: *Gas rāsf khuno. "I make you king."/ "I make you become king." *Gas rāsf skuġho. "I make you (my) slave." Conative usage of nouns Add "m" to causative verb of a noun.Causative usage of noun, and it means " to regard sth/sb as...", or " to treat sth/sb as..) *Gas rāsf khunom. "I regard you as a king." *Gas rāsf skuġhom. "I regard you as a slave." Causative usage of verb(PF) Add the full grade of the core vowel of a verb to make it causative. *meġh, "to eat" > meġhi, "to make someone eat" *rop, "to dress up" > ropu, "to make someone dress up" In these cases, someone should be marked by the particle "ink". *Gas rāsink suosf meġhi. "I make you eat him." *Gas rāsink ropu. "I make you dress up." Sometimes, may only use the particle "ink" without changing the form of the verb. *Gas rāsink suosf meġh. "I make you eat him." Causative usage of adjective Add the full grade of the core vowel of an adjective to make it causative. For adjectival phrase marked by zre/e/i, add vi. *Gas rāsink khosru. "I make you beautiful." Conative usage of Adjective Add "m" to the causative form of an adjective. *Gas rāsink khosrum. "I think you are beautiful." Particles Case Markers These class of particles are immediately attached to a word/phrese/sentence of dependent form(DF). #The usage of taṅ is rare.Few words(sky, heart, etc) accept this particle #Su and gim are only used for animated things, and gim make an emphasis on the possesion. #gu for inamimated things, while mu for abstract conceptions. Postpositions Mood/tone markers These particles are used separated from other words, id est, they are not attached/suffixed to other parts of a sentence. Vocabulary Example text Category:Languages